Panelists Short Bios
Ahmoo Angeconeb
Artist
Ahmoo Angeconeb born in Sioux Lookout in 1955 He was
educated at the visual arts at
York University, Lakehead University, and both a
graduate and instructor at Dalhousie University in Halifax from 1985 to 1989, Ahmoo Angeconeb has gradually
turned the visual aesthetic and symbolic codes of the Woodland school artists
while retaining their philosophical regard for tradition. As an international
Ojibwa ambassador and representative, his travels have also benefited not only
his study, but also his work of shared visual elements of global indigenous
vocabularies. Ahmoo’s work has been exhibited
extensively throughout North America and
internationally and is held in numerous public and private collections
worldwide.
His quiet genius is less known in his home region than it is abroad. He
has been accorded solo shows in Cologne, Berlin, Munich, Monaco, Paris, Basel, Zurich, Santa Fe, as well as Toronto,
Montreal, Halifax,
London and Vancouver. His
work is widely collected and exhibited.He resides at
Lac Seul (Obishikekkang), Ontario. (From the Ahnisnabae Art Gallery website)
Tom
Hill
curator, writer, lecturer, art historian, cultural
policy-maker
Tom
Hill has held prominent positions in the arts in Canada for over 30 years. As a
curator, writer, art historian, volunteer and artist, he has played an
influential role in the development of Aboriginal visual arts. A Konadaha Seneca, Hill studied at the Ontario College of
Art; he also has a certificate in museum studies from the Ontario Museums
Association. From his involvement in the Indians of Canada Pavilion at Expo
’67, he went on to become the first Aboriginal art curator in Canada. A
tireless contributor to countless committees and boards, he has lectured and
written extensively. Among his many awards is the 2004 Governor General’s
award in visual and media arts and an honorary doctorate from Wilfrid Laurier University.
He was museum director at the Woodland Cultural Centre near Brantford for over 20 years.
“Tom
Hill’s many contributions to the art of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples
and to building bridges between Aboriginal artists and the broader Canadian
community are without equal.” (Canada Council for the Arts website)
Dr.
Elizabeth McLuhan
Independent Curator
Since
the mid 1970s, Elizabeth McLuhan has been curating,
teaching and publishing in the fields of Canadian Art History and First Nations
Art History, as well as Medieval History with the underlying (and unifying)
thread of First Nations art and
culture.
Elizabeth McLuhan’s significant list of curatorial projects includes Daphne
Odjig Retrospective, Altered Egos: Multimedia
Work by Carl Beam, Horses Fly Too: Bob Boyer and Edward Poitras and most notably Norval Morrisseau
and the Emergence of the Image Makers, Art Gallery of Ontario, an
exhibition which she co-curated with Tom Hill. She
was most recently, Executive Director at Workers Arts and Heritage Centre, Hamilton (2009-2012). Her
career includes senior positions at Dunlop
Art Gallery,
University of Winnipeg,
Royal Ontario Museum,
Multicultural History Society of Ontario, Gallery of York University
(1984-1987). She is a Founding Board Member / Vice-president of Norval Morrisseau Heritage
Society.
Dr.
Ruth B. Phillips
Art Historian
Ruth Phillips, an art historian specializing in First Nations
art history and museum history and theory, holds a Canada Research Chair in
Modern Culture at Carleton
University. Her books
include Museum Pieces: Toward the Indigenization of Canadian Museums, Sensible
Objects: Colonialism, Museums, and Material Culture,
Unpacking Culture: Arts and Commodities in Colonial and Postcolonial Worlds,
Trading Identities: The Souvenir in Native North American Art
from the Northeast, 1700-1900 (1998),
and, with Janet Catherine Berlo, Native North American Art. She
was director of the UBC Museum of Anthropology from 1997 to 2003.
Ruth Phillips turned her attention to Native North American art after earning a
doctorate in African art history from the School
of African and Oriental Studies at the
University of London. She began her career at Carleton
in 1979, pioneering the teaching of indigenous North American art history in Canada.
She has curated exhibitions for and consulted to
major museums in Canada and
the United State. From 1997-2003 she served
as director of the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British
Columbia, where she was also Professor of Anthropology and Art History. In 2003
she returned to Carleton as the Canada Research Chair in Modern Culture. Between 2004-2008 she served as president of CIHA, the
international association of art historians.
Opening Remarks by
Louise Thomas
Louise Thomas was the wife of the artist Roy Thomas
(1949-2004) and is owner of the Ahnisnabae Art
Gallery founded in his honour. The Ahnisnabae Art
Gallery carries on the
legacy and dreams of Roy Thomas by showcasing his works, as well as that of
several other local artists, thus continuing to support and promote the Ahnisnabae culture.